Politics, race dominate Globe nominations

Movies about race, politics and music have dominated nominations for the Golden Globe awards, setting the stage for the long Hollywood awards season leading up to the Oscars in February.

Dark comedy Vice, a scathing look at the career of former US vice president Dick Cheney, led all comers with six nods.

It was followed by the Lady Gaga musical remake of A Star is Born, British historical comedy The Favourite and road trip movie through 1960s segregated America Green Book, with five nods apiece.

Vice director Adam McKay, who was also nominated, described the film as "an amazing portrayal of power".

"What we tried to do was reflect the times that we are living in, which can be pretty absurd and pretty dramatic and tragic at the same time," McKay told Reuters on Thursday.

The Golden Globes, chosen by the small Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the first major ceremony in Hollywood's long awards season, will be handed out at a ceremony in Beverly Hills on January 6.

The movie line-up includes several other films about racial injustice - If Beale Street Could Talk from Barry Jenkins and director Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman - along with black empowerment superhero movie Black Panther.

Crazy Rich Asians, the first major Hollywood movie in 25 years with an all-Asian cast, further diversified the Globes contenders with nods for best comedy and best actress for Constance Wu.

"Not in my wildest dreams did I ever think our movie would be embraced to this magnitude by the audience and now the HFPA," director John Chu said in a statement.

Music featured strongly in picks like Bohemian Rhapsody, featuring Rami Malek as late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, A Star is Born - the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper remake of the classic show business romance - and Mary Poppins Returns, a sequel to Disney's beloved 1964 film.

Vice won nominations in major categories, including for actors Christian Bale as Dick Cheney, Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, and Sam Rockwell as former US president George W Bush.

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron's much admired semi-autobiographical black-and-white film Roma, for Netflix, was nominated in the foreign language category.

Cuaron also won a directing nod.

Australia's Nicole Kidman received a best actress in a drama nod for her performance in Destroyer, while fellow Australian Yvonne Strahovski was nominated for a supporting actress Globe for her role in the TV drama series The Handmaid's Tale.